


Innocence Lasting

by Val_Creative



Category: Disney - All Media Types, Disney Princesses, Mulan (1998), Mulan - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Bisexual Li Shang, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Fluff, Introspection, Laughter During Sex, Light Angst, Married Couple, Married Life, Near Future, Nightmares, Post-Canon, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-19
Updated: 2020-09-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:47:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26549986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Val_Creative/pseuds/Val_Creative
Summary: Don't ever be sorry for showing weakness in front of me.
Relationships: Fa Mulan | Hua Mulan/Li Shang (Disney)
Comments: 32
Kudos: 218





	Innocence Lasting

**Author's Note:**

> I know we are having a really REALLY fucking bad time right now. I am here to bring you joy and fluff and love. I want to make someone happy with this. If this did make you happy, please send a ❤️! Any thoughts/comments are also welcomed!
> 
> (Yes, I did just reread "Reflection: A Twisted Tale" for Mulan and peppered in bits and pieces of novel references.)

*

Shang wouldn't be where, or _who_ , he was without Mulan.

He did something not quite characteristic of himself: Shang married her within several weeks of visiting Mulan and her family, and getting to know this skilled and mysterious warrior… China's hero, Shang's most trusted friend and the love of his life… better.

Mulan prefers the feeling of cotton over silk. She can eat Yao's weight in dumplings stuffed with pork and cabbage. Her fingernails remain dirty even after bathing. Mulan loves hot, spicy food and Little Brother and riding Khan fast through the woods. She sings off-key. Mulan mends Shang's trousers with crooked stitch-work and forgets to pray to her family's temple.

And she loves him. She _loves_ Shang without limitations or an obligation towards her duty as a woman or wife.

(Mulan's duty, as always, has been to her _heart_.)

*

They end up living in Shang's childhood home.

Ma passes on shortly after General Li's death, falling asleep and never waking again. Her broken heart too all-consuming. Shang grieves, alone, and then pushes it down to return to being a new General. He's often away, but Mulan isn't with him.

It's nothing to do with Mulan being a woman.

She's a soldier enough, but the Emperor appoints her position to carry out diplomatic and political missions.

He needed someone both firm and gentle. A person with a famed reputation for combat all across the lands, but appears as if they can be easily persuaded and lower the inhibitions of even the hardest hearts. Not an exceptionally simple task for the Chinese army.

Mulan decorates when she's back from Emperor's recent summons.

Beautifully delicate and colorful paintings given to her from Grandmother Fa and Fa Zhou. Inked scrolls hang above their heads.

There's a desk of polished cherrywood piled with books containing ancient literature and poetry. She repairs the wooden fences encircling the property, as well as the side-gate. Shang notices an unfamiliar, pungent odor in the air.

Incense wafts in tendrils of smoke. He can smell sandalwood and amber.

They're _finally_ home together.

Shang can't get enough of her, holding onto Mulan from behind and kissing her neck and face. She squirms away long enough to remove her ornate jade-flower hair comb. His hands dive inside Mulan's clothes, worshiping every blessed and naked inch.

He listens to her breathless laughter, captivated by how Mulan's lower lip tugs between her teeth.

She returns the favor by mouthing over Shang's jaw, pulling apart the layers of his belts and sashes. They buck into each other, never looking away, pressing up to a sturdier wall where Mulan's back impacts. Her legs hoist up, wrapping around him.

Mulan allows herself to be taken, whimpering and grinning into her husband's cheek.

Shang knows he can't be rough like they want. He pants out her name and thrusts deeper, slower into Mulan's warmth. There's little oil. He hasn't quite prepared her. Noses and mouths graze each other. Shang wants Mulan's luminously dark eyes on him when she gasps open-mouthed and peaks. Her hands push down heavily on Shang's shoulders for leverage.

He grasps her hips, lifting Mulan and driving himself in. Mulan's eyelashes quiver against his, their foreheads connecting. Her muscles clamp-tight until he groans and releases his pleasure. He can hear Mulan laughing again, whimpery and high.

Shang trembles and laughs with her, feeling sore. He kisses her, helping Mulan down.

(She laughed because she heard him mumble " _Ping_ " instead of " _Mulan_ " and she doesn't seem bothered.)

It's sometimes that Shang looks at her, and he is reminded unabashedly of Ping. Her false identity now merges with Mulan's true self.

It's how Mulan stirs her soup, or how her hair looks gathered up. Or how she uses a throaty, low voice — whether they're practicing their fighting stances and giving way to taunts, or cooking dinner, or making love in the dead of the night.

He wants her in any way imaginable — man, woman, both, neither at all — and Shang may be a military man, but he's clever.

His mind can dream Mulan up, riding on top of him, smiling and sure.

Mulan's dark hair hovers over her eyes.

Shang's tunic wrinkles up her pale, lean thighs. His length vanishes until she's sitting on him throbbing for release under Mulan's buttocks. She lifts up high, high, until the reddened tip exposes and gleams with Mulan's fluids. When she rises again, moaning and still full, Shang knows he's dripping with his own hot, milky fluids escaping out of Mulan. Her opening flutters, empty of him.

He only wants Mulan.

*

Shang wonders if he should be here at all.

He has managed to elude Death a few times now.

His nightmares conjure himself in deep snow, running and helpless, overhearing a falcon crowing angrily in the skies — the beat of its wings — Shan Yu lunges — his blade comes down and it's Mulan injured — she's dressed as Ping, helmet and padded armor, collapsing into Shang's arms while bleeding out — Shan Yu roars in triumph over them, raising his sword again —

_— and there's blackness piercing with the silvery glinting of knives — so many knives — Diyu towers its mountainous terrain, filling with drumbeats and howling ghosts — Shang watches in mounting horror as Mulan's feet and hands trickle crimson —_

_— like when the lava of the Cauldron spews out brightly — Mulan clings to her pole in desperation, screaming and falling in —_

_— in, in — she's falling in deeper — he glimpses Mulan from the courtyard, wearing layers of patterned red silks and satins, her eyes vacant — she is beautiful and still as water — Meng Po's arms circle affectionately to Mulan's neck, as she grins cruelly in Shang's direction — squeezing down — squeezing and forcing the air out of Mulan visibly choking and widening her mouth —_

"Shang—"

He wakes, thrashing and yelling out Mulan's name until it echoes.

Arms. Arms around him, holding him.

"Shang, I'm here," Mulan whispers into his ear.

She leans against his chest soothingly, petting her fingers into his dark, damp hair. They're lying on a pallet bed, naked in the glow of the moon. Shang gasps, clutching onto Mulan's hand and lying his head back against her.

It feels like he's been caught in flurry of flaming arrows. His skin feels burning-hot.

"I'm right here, Shang. You're safe."

" _Mhh_ …Mulan…"

She shushes him, helping Shang upright. Mulan's thumb wipes a line of tears from under Shang's eye. He exhales.

_"S'rry…"_

"Don't be." Mulan grasps Shang's hand over the yang pendant dangling from her throat — ivory and lightweight.

She reaches for Shang's yin pendant —dark as the night sky outside their window — mapping it in reverence. "Don't ever be sorry for showing weakness in front of me," Mulan murmurs, offering a smile so beloved that he tremors. "I'll never think less of you."

He likes to believe so.

(Some people are truly worth living for.)

*


End file.
